Ben Juarez's Blogs

Over the past two years, the Forum has been conducting a long-term research project analyzing the condition of local government infrastructure in metro Milwaukee and the capacity of local governments to finance their infrastructure needs. So far,...

In our 2018 budget brief, we find that the City of Milwaukee’s unsustainable revenue structure and rising pension costs cast huge shadows over the 2018 proposed budget. A report we published earlier this year, On the Money?, found that Milwaukee...

The further the Forum gets into our examination of local government infrastructure challenges, the more we discover vulnerabilities in the different types of infrastructure owned by our largest local governments. In the first two reports of our...

The concluding paragraph of our recently released report on the City of Milwaukee’s revenue structure expresses the hope that it will "launch the type of thoughtful deliberation on Milwaukee's financial structure that its current fiscal challenges...

While many activities of local government go unnoticed by most citizens, in no area is that more the case than sewer and water services, which are literally out of sight. Thousands of miles of pipes run beneath our streets and under our homes,...

Earlier this month, Good Jobs First, a non-partisan accountability firm that tracks public subsidies, published a report on city and county online disclosure practices. The report specifically focuses on public sector subsidies for economic...

Remember the pair of shoes you used to wear to work every day? The ones that looked good and worked with everything you needed to get done? Unfortunately, they wore out to the point where they actually worked against you. Eventually, those shoes...

If there is one thing you can count on pertaining to the City of Milwaukee’s annual proposed budget, it’s this: all things being equal, you’re going to get a fiscally responsible budget that preserves key services and addresses pressing...

Many times in life we have possessions that we take for granted; something that we might invest in, and are proud of when it is brand new. Over time it begins to lose its luster because it has always been there, and - in our minds - it is always...

Synergy, according to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary, is the increased effectiveness that results when two or more people or businesses work together. It exists in business ventures and public-private collaborations, and even amongst non-profits;...